Beet Recipes

I love the flavor combination of beets and sage; I've used the same marriage of flavors in soups, pasta dishes and vinaigrettes on multiple occasions. This time, I made a variation of a polenta appetizer and flavored it with this particular pairing.

The beets gave a regal color to the bite-size portions and I repeated the sage flavor in the cream topping. The corn nugget garnish was my "cherry on top" and was a reminder of the cornmeal used for the polenta.

You’ve probably noticed over the years that our family hosts a large number of dinner parties. My favorite part is creating new appetizers because it really levels the playing field for me. First I come up with a flavor combination that I know works incredibly well as my basis, then turn it into a miniature, aesthetically pleasing, unique piece of art. You know the saying: you eat with your eyes first!

It's almost that time of the year again and I'm ready to prepare a horror-themed dinner for the end of the month. I concocted a gory-looking dish using the elegant combination of mozzarella, garbanzo beans and beets. I figured the color of the beets looked very similar to blood and I paired the dish with mozzarella and olives to resemble blood-shot eyes. Spooky!

First, I soaked garbanzo beans and shredded raw beets. I cooked them together until the legumes were softened enough to be crushed between my thumb and index finger. Once the beet dish was transferred to a serving platter, the finishing touch was adding creepy eyes made of cheese and olives. So it's not that difficult to feed your Halloween fun!

I love this salad as a light lunch meal, especially with the flavorful gorgonzola salad dressing. Alternating thin slices of mozzarella and red beets make up the core of the salad; I placed them on a bed of arugula and flavored them with a leek vinaigrette. Lightly toasted pine nuts added a little crunch.

Serve with slices of toasted sourdough rye bread and you'll be satisfied for the rest of the day.

We just picked our last large batch of beets from the garden. I steamed the candy striped beets, red beets and golden beets and blended them with a mixture of bean and rice porridge (I used mung beans). I've started introducing new foods to my 9-month old baby Aria, and the natural sweetness from the beets works well for infants.

It's pretty nutritious and filling for adults too, so I served the same dish for the family dinner but with a twist. I added pistachio paste for extra flavor and coarsely crushed pistachios for crunch. And for the dinner presentation, I topped the thick soup with goat cheese-infused cream. Who said "baby" food can't be delicious?

There are still a few more days to enter the giveaway and maybe win a Teflon BBQ grill pan. All you need to do is enter your email address. I'll pick a winner on Monday, August 13th at 12AM. It's very easy to participate. Also make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Teflon, or follow @phamfatalecom and @TeflonBrand and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "The #giveaway is live! Enter to #win a BBQ grill pan from @phamfatalecom! What's your favorite meal to #grill?: http://bit.ly/MvWiVG" Good luck everyone!